And we’re off and running for this year’s Outwith Festival! Outwith 18 is dramatically bigger than last year’s inaugural event with over 200 artists delivering comedy, music, theatre, film, literature and art in more than 23 venues over five days in September. There are exciting names coming to town including one of the UK’s most successful screenwriters Gregory Burke, John Maclean who was the founder of The Beta Band and
Glasgow has Tenement TV, Washington has Tiny Desk, London has Sofar Sounds and now Dunfermline has The Loop, an ambitious new project from Loopmaniac Studios. The Youtube-hosted show features live music sessions from performers – local and from further afield – whose music makes the hair on the back of producer Liam Saunders’ hair stand on end, as well as interviews and coverage of art exhibitions and other cultural events.
Exciting times for Dunfermline band Dancing on Tables who have just signed a record deal with American based LV Music and release their first single with the label today. Have a listen here.
For a great selection of rootsy, lyrical songs inspired by Fife, check out the excellent debut album released today by The Johnstown Flood, aka Dunfermline singer songwriter Stuart Bell. Chasing September’s Tail combines country, folk, blues and Americana and even a touch of ragtime on Brandy Alexander (listen below), a stand out track which sets Stuart’s deeply romantic lyric about a night out with his wife against a lovely, woozy tune
So exciting to hear a young local musician producing something that’s properly fresh and original. Just listen to the superb, shimmering funk of this virtuoso solo project by Dunfermline’s own Jamie Cooling. Shades of Lewis Taylor combine with Jamie’s own heartfelt idiosyncrasies to create a perfect summer vibe. Classically trained Jamie is off travelling the world with his guitar at the moment, but this is what he has to say
Today is the birthday of the great Ella Fitzgerald who managed to progress from an orphanage, by way of being a teenage lookout at a brothel and a Mafia numbers runner to being the undisputed First lady of American song. Ira Gershwin said, ‘we never knew how good our songs were until Ella Fitzgerald sang them.’
Tae Sup wi a Fifer is a superb series of shows brought to the Adam Smith Theatre by acclaimed Fife musician James Yorkston. On 9 April the show, in an amazingly good line up, features the magnificent Linton Kwesi Johnson, still going strong at 63, and recent winner of the Scottish Album of the Year Award, Kathryn Joseph. Tickets cost £15 and are available here.
The weather outside this morning seems to call for this sublime piece by Estonian composer Arvo Part, played here by Nicola Benedetti who describes it as ‘simplicity at its most genuine and most moving.’ The image above, also titled Speigel im Spiegel, is by German artist Christine Gehrke.
by Donald Makin Dunfermline is alive with music this weekend with a few gigs to perk up the damp summer nights of July. On Friday 24 July, at 9pm, Stella Reilly headlines a free acoustic gig at the Old Inn in the Maygate. With support from the great Deni Smith, whose new single Breakdown is out now, and Scott Gilbert, who is back with top new tune Neon Lights, this
Minstrel in the Gallery was the eighth LP by Jethro Tull and the last to feature the longtime line up of Dunfermline-born Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, John Evans, Barrie Barlow and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond. To celebrate the classic rock album’s 40th anniversary it has now been remastered and expanded. The new version features b-sides, live recordings, studio outtakes, session material and footage of the band performing in Paris in 1975. The presentation case